Delaware HIV Planning Council

The mission of the Planning Council is to eliminate the spread of HIV/AIDS and to create a seamless continuum of care for all people infected and affected in Delaware, by:

Preventing new and secondary infections, diagnosing existing infections at the earliest possible stage through testing and counseling programs and developing early intervention for existing infections to decrease morbidity and mortality

Linking HIV prevention, testing and counseling, early diagnosis, access to care and the provision of quality treatment services

Engaging and including individuals from every sector of our community in our planning process, particularly those persons whose lives have been directly touched by HIV/AIDS

The Planning Council has set goals for ensuring our mission is met.

The Planning Council will develop the Delaware Comprehensive HIV Plan for prevention and treatment services, by:

Determining the size and demographics of the epidemic in Delaware

Determining the needs (met and unmet) of those who are identified as high risk for HIV and those already infected, especially among the underserved and minority populations

Establishing priorities for prevention and treatment services to identified high-risk and infected populations

Making recommendations in the prevention and treatment systems to best meet the prioritized needs within the state

The Planning Council will periodically assess the recommendations made in the Delaware Comprehensive HIV Plan for their effectiveness, prioritization and relevance to the current environment and emerging trends.

The Planning Council will promote the statewide coordination and collaboration of service providers in order to make effective services available and accessible for those persons who need them.

The Planning Council will respond to HIV service issues, trends and events as they are identified, by communicating those strategies whenever possible and appropriate to key stakeholders.

It is the intention of the Delaware HIV Consortium to create a community-planning group that reflects the diversity of the epidemic. To that end, the Council includes community-based and faith-based organizations, public health officials, service providers, business leaders, individual community members and people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. The Delaware HIV Planning Council has made it a point to recruit other members of the community including behavioral scientists, research scientists, epidemiologists and program/outcome evaluators.